Peking Union Medical College Hospital: A Century-Old National Medical Center in China

Peking Union Medical College Hospital was founded in 1921 by the Rockefeller Foundation with the original vision of building one of the best medical centers in Asia. Over the past century, it has developed into a large Grade III Class A general hospital integrating clinical care, medical education, scientific research, and national-level medical guidance.

The hospital is designated by the National Health Commission as a national guidance center for difficult and critical disease diagnosis and treatment. It was also among the earliest hospitals in China to undertake healthcare services for senior officials and international guests, and has long played an important role in China’s modern medical development.

Peking Union Medical College Hospital has a complete and powerful specialty system. It currently has 29 national clinical key specialties, 5 national “Double First-Class” construction disciplines, 12 national key disciplines, and 9 first-level doctoral degree authorization disciplines.

In the 2023 China Hospital Specialty Reputation Ranking, several PUMCH specialties ranked first nationwide, including pathology, radiology, rheumatology, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, neurology, nuclear medicine, emergency medicine, critical care medicine, allergy, and rare disease medicine.

PUMCH has a total building area of more than 620,000 square meters, over 2,200 open inpatient beds, and 70 clinical, medical technology, and platform departments. The hospital provides high-volume medical services while maintaining a strong patient-centered care philosophy.

The hospital has nearly 3 million outpatient and emergency visits each year, more than 15,000 outpatient visits per day on average, over 100,000 discharged patients annually, and more than 100,000 inpatient surgeries annually. It has also established more than 90 multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment teams to meet complex and diverse clinical needs.

The hospital is equipped with advanced medical technologies and facilities that support precise diagnosis and treatment. These include PET-CT, PET-MR, da Vinci robotic surgery systems, stereotactic radiotherapy systems, TomoTherapy, linear accelerators, ultra-high-field MRI, ultra-fast spiral CT, femtosecond ophthalmic laser systems, hybrid operating room systems, and remote medical teaching systems.

With these technologies, PUMCH continues to explore and apply advanced clinical techniques in rare diseases, difficult and critical conditions, robotic surgery, interventional treatment, and complex multidisciplinary care.

Since its founding, PUMCH has gathered many outstanding medical experts and educators. The hospital currently has 4 academicians, including 2 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 2 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. It also has hundreds of national and ministerial-level talent program recipients.

The hospital has 205 doctoral supervisors, 309 master’s supervisors, and more than 5,800 registered staff members. Nearly 1,000 experts hold senior professional titles. Its teaching team is widely regarded as one of the strongest national teams in Chinese medical education.

PUMCH is a national core base for clinical medical research and technological innovation. In recent years, it has undertaken hundreds of national-level projects, including major national science and technology projects, national key research and development programs, and National Natural Science Foundation projects.

The hospital has made important progress in the mechanisms, diagnostic biomarkers, and targeted therapies of difficult, critical, and rare diseases. High-level research has been published in leading international journals, and several innovative drugs and medical devices have achieved clinical translation.

As a teaching hospital of Peking Union Medical College, PUMCH is also a national demonstration base for higher medical education and residency training. It has more than 30 teaching and research offices, more than 40 doctoral and master’s programs, 22 residency standardized training bases, and 8 national specialist physician standardized training pilot bases.

Peking Union Medical College Hospital has long undertaken national medical assistance missions in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, and other regions. It also organizes national medical teams each year to provide mobile medical services in revolutionary base areas, ethnic regions, and border regions.

In major public health emergencies and natural disaster rescue missions, PUMCH has consistently taken a leading role as part of China’s national medical team. It also actively promotes public health education and primary-level medical support, helping high-quality medical resources reach more communities.

"The PUMCH spirit of rigor, excellence, diligence, and dedication continues to shape its role as a national medical leader and a trusted hospital for complex medical care."